


Shattered World

by WhiskeyTangoFoxX



Category: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-24
Updated: 2018-11-09
Packaged: 2019-08-07 02:53:12
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,134
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16399973
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhiskeyTangoFoxX/pseuds/WhiskeyTangoFoxX
Summary: As the world edges closer and closer to complete chaos, the sky tears and the very fabric of the veil is shattered, a beacon of hope emerges in the form of the new Inquisition, poised to forever change the balance of power in Thedas. With nothing but a hope to make a difference, Leah and her friends join the Herald and the Inquisition to bring order to chaos.





	1. Chapter 1

Leah would not have believed it had she not seen it herself: the sky was torn. The mere sight of the rift alone already stopped the woman in her tracks, the blast that soon followed made her recoil. Something terrible had happened, she could feel it in every inch of her being.

“By the Maker...” Leah heard from behind her. Luca, Leah’s longest and most faithful friend had come up to her after hearing the blast and was now in as much shock as Leah was herself. His dark face was as pale as she had ever seen it.

“I have never even dreamt magic this powerful could exist,” he muttered, his eyes still fixed on the growing tear in the sky.

“Does this mean the peace talks have failed?” The question hung in her throat like a rock. She wasn’t certain, but it was possible that the shaft of energy, reaching up to the rift, was coming from the Temple of Sacred Ashes. Did the mages do this? All of the leaders of the Chantry, Templars and the mages were supposed to be there.

“Whatever it means, we need to break up camp, it’s not going to stay safe in Ferelden much longer. I’ll go find Clarissa.”

Leah knew Luca was right, but the thought of the Conclave failing, the one hope of the war ending on peaceful terms, was unsettling at best. Leah had spent the last 2 years here in Ferelden, using the fighting between the mages and the Templars to earn a living protecting traders and caravans from bandits, deserters and raiding parties. Slowly but surely she was growing tired of the purposeless fighting, and the Divine Conclave represented a chance for normality to return. Another moment of lingering later, Leah turned her attention to the campsite. They had only set up a night prior, so almost everything was still packed up. By the time she had taken down the tent and rolled up the beds, Luca returned with their missing rogue.

“The mages finally went completely off the deep end. Everyone in town is talking about it.”

“There is no way they can know it was them, Clari,” Luca returned.

“Hey if I had to bet, I wouldn’t bet on the sworn enemies of magic to create a huge evil magic hole in the sky,” the rogue said with a hint of jest. Leah knew full well that Clarissa was just teasing Luca again, but still couldn’t help but roll her eyes. Those two certainly found what they will be arguing about for the next few days.

“Look, all I am saying is that most mages just want to live in peace,” Luca went on stubbornly.

“No offense, but most mages I’ve seen would love every chance they can get to give templars some payback.”

“Enough, both of you, stop bickering and get on your horses.” Leah said with a groan as she saddled her own steed. The other two simply did as they were told.

“Where are we going?” Clarissa asked as they set off on the road.

“We’re heading to the Frostback Mountains. I know of a small chantry there, Haven. Maybe they know what’s going on, and maybe they can use our help.” Leah sounded a lot more confident saying that than she actually felt about the situation. The mountains were far away, at least a week by horse, not to mention that if it really was at the Temple, they would be less than a days hike away from the rift.

“You want us to head to that thing?” Luca spat out in shock. “Of all the things you decided to do since we met, this is easily the craziest. Look at that thing! Imagine what it’s like up close!”

“Hey if the world ends, might as well get front row seats. I say Leah is right, we should go take a look.”

“You two are insane. You don’t need to be a mage to look at that and think ‘danger.’”

“You barely count as a mage anyway, Luca” Clarissa quipped.

“A Templar might disagree with that,” he shot back.

“The Templars are busy looking for staves and spell books. You don’t look the part, and you don’t have a phylactery. Unless you start shooting lightning from your fingertips or set your sword on fire, we’ll not have to worry about Templars.” Leah couldn’t believe that they were having that discussion again. On the one hand she understood that as an Apostate, Luca prefers to be extra careful, but on the other hand they had crossed paths with dozens of Templars already, none of which suspected anything.

“Leah, you’ve held this speech a dozen times, Luca is going to worry about this forever.”

“It’s only reasonable for me to worry, apostates are basically kill on sight for Templars these days.”

Leah was about to start again when she realised the futility of the argument and instead just sighed, continuing the ride in silence.

*   *   *

A few days had passed since the breach in the sky first appeared and by now, a thick layer of storm clouds had formed around it, creating an intimidating looking path towards Maker know where. It had a certain beauty to it, but that feeling was overwhelmed by the fear it brought with it. Leah had suspected that the first couple of days everyone would be just as confused as she was, and just a few quick chats with villagers along the way proved her right. Some were saying it was the Maker, displeased with the failure of the Templars to regain control of the mages, others agree with Clarissa, saying the mages unleashed some form of blood magic and others still claim it was the start of yet another blight. The priests have all been quiet and for lack of a better word, ignoring the breach.

It was nothing short of frustrating to not know what was going on. The band was in agreement for once, whatever may have happened, the chantries in the cities would have received word by now. Luca, however, was against seeking them out, and instead wants to follow Leah’s original plan. Clarissa seemed to not care either way, though Leah knew well enough that deep down, she was afraid. Over the last year and a bit she grew to greatly admire the rogue for her determination, but she couldn’t help but worry about what was going on inside her mind in times like these. In the end they could not convince Luca to walk into any major settlements, so instead continued on the road west.

After the group had set up camp for the night, Luca volunteered to gather firewood while the others would guard the camp from any would-be robbers. Leah again caught herself staring at the ever larger hole in the sky. It was emitting a slowly pulsing green glow, and every so often would pulse more intensely, shortly followed by a thunder crack. It was almost hypnotic.

“Careful with that stare, it might think you’re falling in love with it.” Clarissa had snuck up behind her and startled Leah with her joke.

“Clari, by the Maker, please don’t scare me like that,” Leah half complained, half laughed at her own surprise.

“Sorry, but you jumping like that is just too cute to pass up,” the rogue said with a smirk, provoking an eye roll from Leah. After a short pause, Leah looked back at the rift and down into the valley.

“What do you make of this? The hole in the sky, and what it could mean for the war.”

“I try not to think of that, I just hope we’re not walking into having to choose a side.”

“I don’t want to drag us into the war, not now after we managed to stay neutral for so long,” Leah said with a sigh. She acted confident for Clarissa, but in reality she was unsure if staying neutral was still an option. If the hole really is linked to the Conclave, fighting was only going to get worse and far more chaotic.

“I know you’ll get us to the right place in the end, you managed so far, mostly anyway,” Clarissa said, looking into the distance towards the Frostbacks.

“I’m trying anyway. Thanks for the vote of confidence though,” Leah replied with a smile.

“Your smile is beautiful, you know that?” Clarissa said, making a step towards Leah.

“Clari… We talked about this,” Leah said taking a step back. “This has to wait, we can’t get distracted, especially now.”

“I know, but we were just having a bit of a moment, and I thought- you know…” she trailed off looking at her feet. Leah knew that Clarissa hadn’t taken their break well. It’s been almost half a year but she still would occasionally try to make advances whenever Luca wasn’t around. On the one hand, Leah was glad Clarissa had the decency to not be overt with him around, on the other she would appreciate it if she would stop entirely until the world has come to order again, and more importantly, until Leah finally figures out who she really is.

“It’s alright, just, please, let's wait until all this blows over, deal?” Leah said, reaching her hand out, which Clarissa shook immediately.

“Deal.”

Not much later, Leah and Clarissa were sitting at the cliff edge looking towards the breach, discussing banal things in face of the danger. It was an almost cathartic experience, and frightening in its own right. At this point they have gotten used to it, it was just part of the sky now and not the center of attention, at least not until they know what to make of it. The peace would not last long though as a strange banging noise nearby drew their attention.

“What was that?” Clarissa asked as she jumped up, nocking an arrow into her bow.

“Sounded like some sort of explosion. Where is Luca?”

“Probably still out getting firewood. No way he didn’t hear that.”

“Well, then let’s go, we’ll meet him there.” Leah was confident that the mage would go to investigate the sound also, both out of curiosity and to see if he can help.

The sound had come from a ways into the forest and as the pair got closer to the source, they could hear more, quieter blasts and a strange continuous noise that almost sounded like whispers. It wasn’t long until they reached a clearing in the forest and were confronted with the source: a small glowing green volume, and for lack of a better description, a rip in the air that was slowly pulsing larger. Was this part of the breach in the sky?

“Leah!” Luca shouted from the other side of the clearing, his sword drawn and lightning sparking in his off-hand. “Thank the Maker you’re here, what the hell is this thing?”

“It looks like a smaller version of the thing in the sky.” She said as they regrouped near the tear. It was hard to tell, but the tear seemed to lead somewhere, but whatever it was leading to looked like a hellish landscape. Without warning, the tear shifted and created a shockwave knocking Leah down and with it a small handful of Shades appeared from the ground.

“Demons!” Clarissa yelled as she planted the first arrow into one of the eldritch shapes. By the time Leah was back on her feet, the unmissable sounds of combat surrounded her. On the one side Clarissa ducked into the trees for cover, hoping to remain unseen; on the other side the sounds of thunder cracks and blade hitting flesh filled the air as Luca unleashed all his strength on the beasts closing in on him. In the split second Leah observed this, a pair of Shades turned their attention to Leah. This was not the first time Leah encountered demons in combat, but it was the first time she saw this sheer amount at a time. In the moment she decided to ignore this fact and began to melee through the ones near her. As her blade cut through them they disappeared into a cloud of smoke, giving her the moment she needed to flank a group that were closing in on Clarissa who would be hopelessly outnumbered. By the time she had cut them down, Luca also closed in, just in time for another even larger wave of Shades to emerge from the ground.

“We have to get out of here, this damn rift is just going to keep attracting more of these things,” Luca exclaimed as he started to back up with the others.

“Lets hope they don’t follow us,” Leah muttered as she turned foot and ran into the forest with her friends in tow, running until they couldn’t hear the rift anymore. The group stopped to catch their breath.

“That place inside the rift… was that the Fade? Is that what is going on here?” Clarissa finally asked.

“It was no place on Thedas, that’s for sure,” Luca affirmed, though even as a mage he couldn’t be sure.

“Watch tonight sure is going to be nerve racking.” Leah said dryly.

*   *   *

The breach in the sky was indeed a lot more imposing now that Leah, Clarissa and Luca were standing by the foot of the Frostback Mountains. However, only a couple of days ago something happened to it, a light shot up and it had since stopped growing. None of the group were sure what to make of it, and hoped to find out more in Haven.

“Well, Haven is only bit of a ride from here,” Leah said with a sigh.

“And it looks like we’re not the only ones heading this way recently. The whole path is trampled dry,” Luca pointed out. Indeed, a distinct path of uncovered ground could be seen snaking up the snowy incline all the way into the sparse forest surrounding the area. Haven was a known pilgrimage site, and there were several waysigns that pointed it out for several miles.

“Hail, travellers! You also coming to join the new Inquisition?” a loud voice boomed from behind the group, startling them for a moment. “My apologies, I did not mean to frighten.”

“We’re heading to Haven in the search for some answers regarding the breach,” Leah said turning to the stranger, who turned out to be a mid-aged, rather big man, followed by a smaller man, probably a few years younger man, likey siblings from the looks.

“Hang on now, Inquisition? There is a new Inquisition?” Luca interrupted shocked.

“Aye there is, and they are the ones that managed to stop that breach from growing. Now they are looking for every abled body to help them bring order to the world. Me and my brother here are going to join their ranks and make a difference,” the stranger’s words were filled with pride as he beamed.

“What’s your take on this Leah?” Clarissa asked.

“I don’t want to get involved in the Mage-Templar War. But who knows what their own stance is on the matter, perhaps they are trying to resolve it peacefully still.”

“So far the village has been guarded by a few soldiers. They’re the ones who recommended we seek out Commander Cullen of the Inquisition.”

After a couple of moments and an exchange of nods, the trio decided to go with the strangers up the path. Along the way they ran into several other traders, caravaneers and travellers coming and going to Haven. Activity here was much higher than it had ever been when Leah was here years ago, and as they reached the frozen lake, they could make out several dozen tents line the palisades of the settlement, and a hardly countable number of soldiers sparring under the supervision of a pale blonde man. The Inquisition soldier that had begun to escort them at the first gate saluted the man, who in turn dismissed him back to his posting.

“Welcome to Haven, I am Commander Cullen Rutherford of the Inquisition, my Captain tells me you wish to join our forces,” he said unflinching, he had probably gone through this exact conversation many dozen times over in the last few days.

“Aye, me and my brother here would like to enlist in your forces,” the stranger told the commander, who nodded in turn and directed them to where they need to go.

“And you three?” he addressed the group, somewhat skeptical but not unfriendly.

“I’m Leah, these are my friends, Clarissa and Luca. We honestly didn’t hear about you basically until we started on the path up here to Haven. We came to see what is happening and if we can somehow help,” Leah answered for the group. The commander took a moment to size up the crew. To him they must have looked like a band of bandits, or at the very least like mercenaries.

“I trust your intentions are as harmless as they sound. Proceed to the settlement if you wish. If you decide to offer your services to the Inquisition, speak to the quartermaster. Good day.” He gave the group a friendly nod before immediately turning his attention to a soldier who appeared not moments before.The Commander certainly seemed to be busy organising the exponentially growing forces.

“A new Inquisition, huh?” Luca said almost mockingly.

“You sound unconvinced. So far things are looking promising,” Clarissa replied.

“Clari, maybe you want to open a history book. The Inquisition are who formed the Circles and pursued the mages who dared to want freedom.”

“They were mainly hunting blood mages and abominations, actually,” Leah said matter of factly.

“History is written by the victors,” Luca spat before storming off. He seemed to be clearly upset that they weren’t worried about this Inquisition’s intentions. Leah indeed did wonder what their plan was, and additionally wondered if it were possible to influence it’s direction somehow.

“He’ll be back when he cooled off,” Clarissa said, noticing Leah’s thoughtfulness.

“I know, but maybe he has a point, we should see if we can find out their plans. Maybe their quartermaster can shed some light on things.”

*  *   *

The sun had almost fully disappeared behind the snow-topped trees and the roads, paths and buildings around Haven were now bathed in orange light from hundreds of torches, braziers and fire pits. Leah, Clarissa and a returned Luca were hanging out in the Singing Maiden, the lone tavern in the village. The mood generally seemed to be high, people had hope and there was little concern amongst them, at least seemingly.

“I’m telling you Luca, I saw many _obvious_ mages here. They’re not trying to make them tranquil or kill them.” Leah was starting to run out of patience with the man. His paranoia had always been a point of contention, and very regularly interrupted their travels and plans. This time she intended to not let that happen.

“And yet I saw a tranquil earlier today, and at least a dozen templars. Besides, even if they do take in non-rebel mages, who knows what they do with hedge mages?” Luca insisted.

“If we want to have any chance of trying to soothe the path this inquisition takes, we have to join them. Who knows, perhaps they will try to fight for mage rights.”

“Or alternatively they will turn on their own mages when they are done with whatever they plan.”

“Don’t you think it’s about time you take a chance with something? It’s not like we’re going to war, we just want to see if we can help make this be the real deal. And if push comes to shove, we’ll just fight our way out,” Clarissa finally injected after sitting quiet for most of the argument. “Leah, you’ll really need to try and make some sort of contact with the alphas here.”

“I plan to. Right now quite a few of the big names are on the road, trying to spread word of the Inquisition.”

“If you are going to try and influence anyone, you’d be best of going with the Herald of Andraste I heard people talk about. Apparently he has a lot of pull with the people here, or at least he is some sort of figure to them,” Luca finally said.

“So, are we doing this?” Leah asked hopefully.

“There seems to be no way to convince you otherwise. But I swear, if this Inquisition makes just half a move that makes me think they will hunt mages again, either we or I will be gone.”

With that answer, Leah was satisfied. She took her mug of mead and raised it for a toast. Just like days earlier, Leah seemed a lot more confident than she actually felt. No one in the Inquisition had any reason to talk to her, much less listen to what she thinks the right direction is, but maybe, just maybe with a bit of luck she could make a difference.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After joining the reborn Inquisition, Leah and her friends, concerned for the safety of Luca, try to find some kind of answer to their stance on mages.

Despite the best efforts of cloths, bedrolls, clothes and furs, the bone chilling cold of the frostback mountains still got through to Leah’s body by the time she woke up. It had been the same almost every day since she, Luca and Clarissa arrived at Haven, and it was hardly surprising due to the strong winds and intermittent snowstorms that have hit Haven lately. Taking another moment longer, Leah finally rose from her bunker of moderate warmth to throw over her coat. The two empty bedrolls next to her told Leah that she was again the last to wake. Leah braced herself for the cold winds outside her tent before stepping out and being met with a highly frustrated looking Clarissa sitting under a seeming pile of furs by their still unlit fire pit.

“Finally you’re awake,” Clarissa said with a sigh of relief. “Our friendly neighbourhood mage doesn’t want to light our fire.”

“Well he usually doesn’t, why would he now? Especially with all these people around?” Leah asked the rogue who looked somewhat taken aback by Leah’s question.

“Well,  _ maybe _ it’s because it’s bloody windy today and I can’t get the tinder going because of it? It would be no effort at all for him to start a little fire, it’s not like I’m asking him to shoot fireballs everywhere.”

“Clari, you know how he is, unless he’s forced to, he won’t even use magic in a fight. You’ll never convince him to use it for banal things like starting a fire.”

“The lack of fire doesn’t feel banal from here, I’m bloody freezing despite sitting under my own little mountain of blankets,” Clarissa moaned at Leah.

“True as that may be, Luca is still not going to do it. Where is he anyway?” Leah asked.

“He went into town, don’t know if it is to avoid me or to actually  _ do _ something.”

“Knowing him, he’s likely trying to find a good place to keep an eye on the Templars.”

“Or just sulk that we won’t leave.”

“Clari,” Leah said disapprovingly, being met by a grin from the rogue. “Just don’t let Luca hear you say that. We’ll never hear the end of it.”

“Don’t worry, he’ll have to find something else to complain about tonight,” Clarissa joked.

“I’m gonna go to the village, see if I can find our mage. Why don’t you go ask one of our neighbours if they will lend you a torch to start the fire with?” Leah suggest as she got on her way, leaving behind a cursing rogue.

Walking to the village had become much more of navigating a maze over the last week; the forces of the inquisition had been growing fast, staggeringly fast considering the remoteness of Haven and the Chantry officially denouncing them as heretics. Though it was pretty clear that the denouncing was almost meaningless as they still were recovering from their losses. The explosion at the conclave that Leah had learned of just about killed every important leader in the conflict, including the Divine. The only survivor had been the man people have started to call the Herald of Andraste. It was also he who stopped the breach in the sky from growing. It made perfect sense that people started to look to him as a sort of leader, or at least a beacon of hope. If anyone could tell Leah how the Inquisition plans to restore order, it would be him, if he even bothered to talk to her at all.

Under normal circumstances, Haven was barely on the map. It’s only significance came from it’s chantry’s summer pilgrimage up the mountain to the Temple of Sacred Ashes. Now, with the Inquisition having set up its headquarters in the Haven Chantry, the little village was practically overrun by tradesmen, traders, nobles and all sorts of people from all walks of life, some curious about the state of affairs, others having come to offer their services, and others yet still who have come to protest. It was truly incredible how many people have gathered in such short time, and it was nothing short of a miracle that the supplies coming in are lasting for the ballooning population.

Leah had spent nearly an hour looking around the crowds to spot Luca with no success. She had just left the Singing Maiden again when she caught something from the corner of her eye: a young elf woman wearing circle robes was being cornered by a group of commoners. The woman was clearly distressed, as such Leah approached the group.

“Hey, pick on someone who’ll defend themselves you thugs!” Leah called over to them.

“What? You’re going to defend one of these swines that killed our Most Holy?” the seeming leader of the small mob spat back.

“No mage, and definitely not this one, killed the Divine.”

“Just look at the sky! These things are trying to kill us all,” another of the group yelled.

“Please, I just want to get back to my studies,” the mage pleaded. One of the men swung to strike the woman, but was intercepted by Leah and to his great surprise, landed on the floor face down.

“You bitch, you’ll pay for that!” the leader yelled as he reached for the knife in his sheath. Instinctively Leah reached for her own blade, only to realise she had left it in her camp. Silently cursing, Leah sized up the stance of her opponents. Four men stood against her, eached armed with short knifes. Their stances showed no training and little experience. Leah took her own stance, ready to defend any attacking blows from her opponents and practically taunting them to strike. The leader was the first to attempt to get into range, but before his swing could connect Leah crouched under it and delivered an elbow strike into the man’s back before he could recover, provoking a yell of pain from him. With barely a moment to breath, the second man and the one she had gotten to the floor earlier came at her at the same time. Leah again looked for a weakness in their strikes before lowering her stance and lunging at one of the men. The unexpected move from her caused him to lose his balance completely and fall back, landing head first against the wall of the Tavern, meanwhile the other charged into air, but caught himself just in time to be knocked down deliberately by a well placed kick from Leah, causing him to stumble and fall onto the leader, preventing him from getting up again.

The final man was about to launch himself at his opponent when he suddenly dropped his knife and raised his arms in surrender.

“In the name of the Inquisition, I order you to stand down!” a woman yelled from behind Leah over the sound of a sword being pulled out of its sheath. The woman walked past Leah with determination at the last standing opponent before a couple of men following her restrained him. The dark haired woman turned to face Leah now, lowering her weapon. Leah immediately recognised the heraldry on her armour: she was a Seeker of Truth.

“That was very brave of you, to take on four armed men,” the Seeker said as she now sheathed her sword.

“I had to do something, I couldn’t let them do that to that woman,” Leah said, catching her breath from the fight.

“Most others would have looked the other way, you did not, that is worth commendation,” the Seeker replied in ernest. “What is your name?”

“My name is Leah.”

“I applaud you, Leah. You fight with the patience of a Templar. For now, however, I ask that you let me handle these thugs,” the woman said. While she phrased it as a request, it was clear that she was not going to take no as an answer.

*    *    *

One of the few things that made the nights in Haven become bearable was the Singing Maiden. It was already a wonder that a village as small as Haven had one, a wonder that just about everyone in the Inquisition was glad for. The building was not exactly large, as such it was often packed enough that it was hard to walk without bumping into someone. Despite all of this, Clarissa had somehow managed to secure a table for her, Leah and Luca to sit at.

“You mean you actually got commended by Seeker Pentaghast? The woman who proclaimed the Inquisition reborn?” Luca asked in slight disbelief at Leah’s account of the day.

“How many other Seekers have you seen around Luca?” Clarissa asked mockingly.

“Yes I’m aware, but that is huge. You have to capitalise on this Leah.”

“But how would I? It’s one thing to come to the attention of the Seeker, it’s a whole nother thing to have any sway,” Leah responded.

“What you have to do is talk to someone, offer to help,” Luca urged. “I saw the Herald today. He was talking to the commander by the Chantry. Try talking to him if you can.”

“Right, come talk to the guy who is gonna fix the sky. Me, a lowly sellsword. That’s not going to happen,” Leah said.

“I mean I don’t usually like to say this, but Luca is right, you have to at least try,” Clarissa said, winning a poison glance from Luca, to which she merely responded with a wink.

“Fine, I’ll try it, if I can ever find the man. I don’t even know what he looks like.”

“Well, if you really want to know, he looks like the man right over there,” Luca said dryly, pointing at a tanned, dark-haired man sitting alone at a table on the other side of the tavern.

“Wait are you saying...?”

“I am. That’s him. The Herald of Andraste. Sitting alone in the Tavern.”

“By the Maker… Leah, do something,” Clarissa urged, almost pushing her friend out of her chair.

“This better not go wrong,” Leah muttered as she got up, carving a path through the crowd to the lone man. From where she was standing, the Herald looked just like any other man. No guards, no fancy hat, not even particularly fine clothing. When she finally came close to the man, Leah took a deep breath before speaking up.

“Excuse me, Herald of Andraste?”

“That is what people call me these days,” he replied dryly, but with a smile. “I’m surprised you recognised me here. You’re the first.”

“I hope I’m not intruding on anything. May I?” she asked, indicating at the empty seat opposite from the man.

“Please do.” he said.

Before sitting down, Leah extended her hand.

“Leah. It’s an honour to meet you.”

“Allen. The honour is all mine.” the man said with a charming smile as Leah took her seat. “Cassandra told me about you.”

“Nothing bad I hope,” Leah joked, though for all she knew there could have been something.

“Quite the contrary, she was quite fascinated by how you stood up for Minaeve.”

“I couldn’t just stand by while I could help,” Leah admitted, trying to wave it off.

“She tells me you weren’t even armed,” Allen continued.

“It was clumsy of me, I shouldn’t have left my sword at camp.”

“And you managed to take care of three of them before she even had a chance to intervene herself.”

“I was lucky, they had no idea what they were doing.”

“Wave it away as much as you like, but you’ve impressed Cassandra. That’s no small feat.”

“I just wanted to help, really,” Leah said, having a hard time concealing that she was blushing.

“How did you come to join the Inquisition?” Allen changed the subject, “Cullen informed me that you are part of our auxiliary forces.”

“My friends and I were in the Redcliffe area when the breach appeared. At first we just wanted to know what was going on, but after we learned of the Inquisition, we joined up to help bring order to the world again.”

Allen slowly nodded as Leah explained her situation and the details of her journey in further detail before finally speaking.

“So you have encountered a fade rift in the Hinterlands. It’s good that you fell back from it, as far as we can tell, until it is sealed, demons will be attracted to it.”

“Can you do it? Seal these rifts?”

“This mark can do it anyway,” the Herald replied, looking at his left hand.

“That’s amazing,” Leah muttered.

“Excuse me, Leah, but I must retreat for the night. Tomorrow we prepare for our expedition to Val Royeaux,” Allen said, rising from his chair. “We will talk again soon. Good evening.”

*    *    *

The following morning Leah, Clarissa and Luca had decided to stay at camp, they had little reason to go up into the bustling village. Leah had been hoping that Allen would have come to talk to her, but by now he has already likely left for the capital city of Orlais. Leah was admittedly disappointed, she had hoped the Herald would make good on his word to speak again. Perhaps she had said something wrong last night in the tavern, or maybe she just simply did not make the cut, and was not worth his time anymore. As the morning passed to midday, Leah started to come to terms with the outcome and was just about to start plotting her next moves with her friends when an inquisition soldier approached their camp looking clearly confused and disoriented.

“Excuse me, does any of you happen to be or know a Leah? Seeker Pentaghast asked for her personally to report at the Chantry,” he said, hoping to get a positive response.

“I’m Leah, I’ll go immediately.”

“She has specifically requested you come prepared to travel. That is all,” he added before jogging back towards the village.

“Well I’ll be damned,” Clarissa muttered.

“Does this mean you are going with the Herald to Orlais?” Luca asked.

“It would seem so. I wonder why he chose me, or if it was even his choice,” Leah said as she got her pack ready. “You two are going to be alright without me?”

“Yes ser, I’ll make sure Luca doesn’t do any blood magic when you’re not looking,” Clarissa joked.

“And I hope he makes sure you don’t start stealing stuff,” Leah quibbed back at her friend.

After exchanging farewells with her friends, Leah headed off to the chantry, jumping multiple steps of each flight of stairs when she arrived at the front gate of the Chantry. Allen, the Seeker and an elven mage Leah had not seen before had gathered with obvious intent to leave imminently.

“There she is.” the Seeker said as she beckoned Leah to join them.

“Leah, this is Solas, he is our expert on the fade and the rifts, Allen tells me you already met.”

“Well met,” the elf greeted, to which Leah responded with a nod and a smile.

“If I may ask, why am I coming along?” Leah inquired.

“Orlais and Val Royeaux especially is neutral at best, and hostile at worst. We need another set of alert eyes with an equally matched combat efficiency. We do not have many candidates that match this, and most of them are tied down to their duties,” the Seeker explained as they began heading off to the stables.

“Are you expecting to be attacked?”

“No, but it would be foolish to not prepare for that eventuality,” the elf answered.

“My hope is that by presenting myself to the clerics they will see that I am no man to be feared.”

“It is a risky move still, but we have no other choice.” the Seeker insisted.

“We’ll have to see, for now, we should get going.”


End file.
